8 Man Front for Week 4

This posting comes a little bit later than normal and I would like to apologize to all of my loyal readers. I have been a little busy working on a top secret project for a major provider of football information. But, I am now back to our beloved site here and I am ready to riff on all of the goings on in yesterdays games. So without further adieu here are the 8 things that I saw yesterday that I think everyone should recognize as well.

1. Forget Brees, Peyton is first quarter MVP. After the first two games this year everyone was talking about Drew Brees and wondering just how many TDs he might throw for this year. He had a video game start to the year, but the last two games have brought him back to Earth. While he has gone touchdown-less the last two games, Manning has turned it up. He has started the season with 4 straight 300 yard games for the first time in his career. He seemingly lights up whatever secondary he faces. He is like a fine wine right now that gets better with age. He has made his young receivers, Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon, extremely effective. He does have studs in Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark to throw to, but his backfield is suspect and gives him very little help. He makes everyone around him better and no one is more important to his team’s success than him. That’s the definition of MVP.
2. Eli helps Mannings rule the football universe. While Peyton is currently the frontrunner for MVP, his little bro is hanging with him. If we’re talking about players that are the most important to their team’s success, Eli definitely has to be mentioned. He is playing the best football of his career right now and he’s doing it with receivers that everyone doubted going into the season. Gone are the days of Plaxico Burress making him better with his 6 foot 5 inch frame. Eli is now making his receivers better. His accuracy has never been better and his quarterback has never been as high. He’s throwing lasers and his receivers are doing their part on reeling them in. The New (York) Steve Smith leads the league in receiving and is the biggest steal of this fantasy season. Mario Manningham struggled catching the ball yesterday but has proven so far this year that he can provide the big play element that Burress once provided. But it all revolves around Eli. This has become a pass first team that just happens to have a great rushing attack as well. As long as his plantar fasciitis is not a problem going forward, we could be headed toward a Manning meeting in Miami.
   

   Eli has been unfazed all year as he has led the Giants to an undefeated record.

3. Can the Titans really be this bad? David Garrard is not a great quarterback. A few years ago the Jaguars paid him like one, but he is not. He is simply a game manager who minimizes mistakes and needs guys around him to make plays in order for him to be successful. But yesterday he looked like Steve Young against the pathetic Titans secondary. He threw for 323 yards and 3 TDs and did so at a 73% clip. The Titans secondary was one of the best in the league last year and now they are sieve-like. It is a baffling turn-around that cannot be explained by the loss of Albert Haynesworth. They sent three fourths of their secondary to the Pro Bowl last year and their secondary coach became the defensive coordinator. Yet they’ve regressed worse than JaMarcus Russell. Some thought their start was a fluke and they were bound to turn it around. But at 0-4 their season is officially over as they sit 4 games behind the Colts. It’s time to see if Vince Young’s fragile psyche is ready to lead them again.
4. I was wrong about the Raiders. In one of my first postings this year I wrote that I didn’t think the Raiders would be a laughingstock and a doormat this year. Well, I was very, very wrong. They showed up to play against the Chargers in week 1 and looked like they might be able to knock off some teams this year and make some noise within their division. But as long as Russell is the quarterback, they have no shot. He is the worst quarterback I have ever seen play, and I went through years of watching Dave Brown assume the duties in New York. I just read a comparison of him and he matches up right now with Ryan Leaf. I’m pretty sure that’s as bad as it gets. And Darren McFadden isn’t helping either. When you’re a high first round pick, 6 carries for -3 yards is absolutely unacceptable. Plus, he’s now out for 2-4 weeks with a knee injury. The Raiders are in trouble not just this year, but for the foreseeable future too because they have no idea what they’re doing on draft day.
   

   If Ryan Leaf was a black man, he'd look like this.

5. Panic for Patriots I think not. For all those people who were worried that Tom Brady and the Patriots were in trouble because of early season trouble should fret no longer. Brady finally hooked up with Randy Moss for the first time this year and the much maligned Patriots defense put the clamps on the high-flying Ravens defense. Many analysts were considering the Ravens to be the best team in the league before this week, but the Patriots had just enough at home to put that talk to rest for at least this week. Joe Flacco had better numbers than Brady, but Brady got the more important win. This game was more important to the Pats than it was to the Ravens and they’d played like it. But the Ravens are no slouches. Flacco had them in position to tie the game late, but Mark Clayton dropped a ball that was placed in the breadbasket and any hopes they had of winning the game went out the door. For now, all talk of a Patriots decline shall cease.
6. Mark Sanchez is still a rookie. Everyone wanted to crown Sanchez the new king of New York. He took the league by storm in his first three games, leading the surging Jets to three straight wins and an early-season playoff favorite. As improbable as it was, he was leading a veteran team with a stellar defense and putting points on the board. But yesterday he finally showed that he in fact is a rookie. He completed barely over 50% of his passes and threw three interceptions and lost a fumble. Those four turnovers killed the Jets as they remained close for most of the game but couldn’t make up any ground with Sanchez turning into a human mistake. The Saints defense looks very impressive right now and they were simply too much for Sanchez to handle. Sanchez’s future remains bright, but yesterday was a reminder that there will indeed be bumps in the road along the way.
   

   What? The gold helmets aren't our guys? S*&*!

7. The Broncos are no fluke. I don’t care who you play, when you’ve only given up 26 points in three games your defense is pretty good. They started the season by beating the Bengals on a fluke last second play and then beat up on two jayvee teams in the Raiders and Browns. But yesterday they beat a team that a lot of people thought were playoff bound. They shut down the explosive Cowboy offense and made Tony Romo look like JaMarcus Russell (even thought he’s probably closer to Russell than he is to Peyton). Kyle Orton managed the game perfectly and when the game was on the line put the ball in his playmakers hands. Brandon Marshall came through when it mattered most with a spectacular catch and run for the game-winning touchdown. The Broncos are heading into a murderer’s row schedule right now, but they should have shot to win a few of them.
8. Jason Garret’s stock at Enron levels. This guy was supposed to be the best young offensive mind in the league? Last year he couldn’t figure out a way to get T.O. a clean break off the line of scrimmage and now he made some of the worst play calls I’ve ever seen. My boss is a Cowboys fan and talking to him about the game today almost caused him to have a stroke. If I was a Cowboys fan, I’d be the same way. Champ Bailey is one of the corners in the game and one of the best in history. Yet they threw in his direction 13 times yesterday. Andre Goodman is a decent corner, but he is not Champ Bailey. Yet they only threw to his side 3 times all game. It makes no sense. With the Cowboys on the goal line in the waning seconds, not only does Garrett not call a run to his beast of a running back, Marion Barber, he calls two passes to Sam Hurd who was covered by Bailey. Bailey on Hurd is one of the biggest mismatches there could be. If you’re going to throw, why not to Roy Williams on a fade or have Jason Witten go across the middle. Absolutely baffling. Even worse, Romo said he didn’t realize it was fourth down when he targeted Hurd on the game’s penultimate play. Pathetic.

Yesterday was a fantastic day of football, but tonight’s game could trump it all. We are currently in the midst of a barn burner in Minnesota and I’ll have my thoughts on it tomorrow. Until then, keep your Favre love to a minimum.